In this week’s Gospel reading, we start with an allusion to an absolutely outrageous story. Pontius Pilate, we hear, killed Jews who were making a sacrifice in the temple—an act custom-made to provoke outrage. Mixing human blood with the blood of a sacrifice in the temple made it ritually unclean and invalid; Pilate ordering the murder of Galileans during sacrifice was the equivalent of committing murder, then publicly defiling the bodies in a way that caused God to turn away from the murder victims. Like any good story of outrage, I’m guessing this one had all sorts of salacious details at the time. Some might even have been true. True or not, it probably told well, and that’s how it made its way to Jesus.

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Today’s bumper sticker theology: “Born OK the first time.” Time features heavily in our readings for this week. I did a lot of research on time this week—it was fascinating stuff, but the sort of thing I suspect that only the truly curious care about. I’ve summed it up as best I can by sharing a comic in your bulletin from one of my favorite online strips, xkcd. If you find this comic funny, you are very weird and highly educated. Sir, madame: I salute you.

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Today’s bumper sticker theology (one of my favorites): “Comfort the afflicted; afflict the comfortable.” However you find yourself right now, stop. Observe the world around you. I love the sun. I love the rain. Some days, we get both at the same time. I brought bubble wrap today. I enjoy popping bubble wrap.

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I’m a big fan of bumper sticker theology. This week’s bumper sticker theology: “Jesus died to take away your sins, not your mind.” Part of learning how to be a person of mature faith is learning how to deal with disappointment: what to do when we fail; or when the world we know falls apart; or when catastrophe strikes; or when, like the Rolling Stones sing, you can’t always get what you want. We have language for misery and sorrow; what to do when God seems distant; books of the Bible; classes; seminars; psychologists; group counseling; on and on. All of these resources for coping with suffering are necessary and good.

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